Pakistan: elections and beyond

S P SETH

Some people hold the view that Pakistan would need a miracle to become a viable and normal state. Will its grueling and violent elections bring about that miracle? Miracle it might not create but its very completion, in the midst of a concerted violent campaign by Pakistan’s Taliban, is a hopeful sign. The transition from one elected civilian government to another, whatever its political hue and combination, is an achievement. And it is also heartening that people, by and large, were not cowed down by Pakistani Taliban’s orchestrated violent campaign to keep them away from the polling booths. They apparently ignored threats and reality of violence and turned out in large numbers to do their civic duty of electing their new parliamentary representatives who, in turn, will select a new government.

It is also encouraging that the religious Islamic parties didn’t make much headway. But both PML-N led by Nawaz Sharif, and Imran Khan’s PTI, though, are inclined to appease Sunni religious bias than reflect a liberal streak. Imran Khan, for instance, went on record to distance himself from the Ahmadis saying reportedly that he wouldn’t be seeking their votes. He has also been publicly airing his renewed and newly reinvigorated faith in Islam, which, more or less, parallels his political activism. Nawaz Sharif’s pandering to the religious right is not unknown. In other words, both Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan sought to present themselves in suitably religious garbs.

Pakistan, it would seem, is now set on a democratic process, which gives its politicians legitimacy to govern the country for another term. But democracy, still in its nascent form and under attack from militants, will find real popular legitimacy when the elected governments start addressing the country’s problems and deliver results. Pakistan has immense problems and unless the new dispensation creates hopes for a better future, the net gainers will be the extremists and religious fanatics. They will be able to say that ‘we told you so.’

Even as the new government begins the task of governing, it will also simultaneously need to create a broad and inclusive national ethos. Pakistan lacks a national ethos where all people, irrespective of their religion, ethnicity and sects, should feel included. Despite the tone set by Pakistan’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, of an inclusive Pakistan for all its citizens, his political successors, by and large, found political advantage in pushing the religious card in which Muslims were the privileged citizens. Some of them even went further to privilege only the Sunni community by ex-communicating sect(s) that claimed Islam as their religion but were found to lack ‘real’ Islamic credentials. For instance, then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1974 got the country’s constitution amended to declare Ahmadi community as non-Muslims.

And under General Zia’s dispensation, any pretence of tolerance for others was abandoned and intolerance was constitutionally enshrined. Not only are the Ahmadis virtually disenfranchised, they are also subjected to persecution, sometimes bordering on pogroms. And the large Shia community doesn’t fare much better with frequent attacks on their persons, property and religious shrines. Outside the sectarian divide, the country’s Christians and Hindus are constantly targeted.

Such persecution is not only inhumane, it also gives the country’s militants of all hues an excuse to keep pushing Pakistan more and more into religious right, as one witnesses with PML-N and PTI. They have also hounded relatively moderate parties like ANP, MQM and even PPP into a corner for fear of violent retribution. At a time when Pakistan is taking tentative steps to embrace democracy, it is important to remember that a democratic system enshrines plurality and diversity where differences are celebrated and, when necessary, mediated rather than obliterated.

Ever since its creation, Pakistan has an identity problem.  It was designed as a homeland for the subcontinent’s Muslims where they could pursue their destiny without prejudice, discrimination and domination by the majority Hindu community. Its creation was undoubtedly religion-based. But its founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, wanted an independent Pakistan to be an inclusive nation where all its citizens had an equal stake. But to give its conceptual religious origin a secular twist of inclusion, as Jinnah wanted, presented a major problem. And with none of Pakistan’s successive leaders in Jinnah’s liberal tradition and of his caliber, they found it easier to exploit religion for their political ends; thus plunging the country deeper and deeper into religious obscurantism and creating today’s version of militancy exemplified by the mindless violence of Pakistani Taliban.

Not long after Pakistan’s creation, religion (Islam) was found to be inadequate as an all-encompassing national ideology, when East Bengal insisted on its own cultural identity with its own language and tradition. Which eventually led to the creation of a separate state of Bangladesh. Besides, almost all the constituent provinces in Pakistan, Baluchistan being the most potent, insisted on autonomy railing against the domination of Punjab. And this issue has never been resolved adequately, remaining a festering sore. In view of the inadequacy of religion (Islam) as a unifying ideology, it is time for Pakistan’s political establishment, with democracy hopefully taking a hold, to start a conversation on a multifaceted national identity.  

These fissures in Pakistan’s polity and national identity might not have mattered much if its leaders had not allowed themselves to be distracted by religious politics, and instead working to better their people’s lives. But this didn’t happen. Two important tasks for any country are to ensure people’s physical and economic security. On both these counts, Pakistani state has failed dismally. The frequency of extremist violence, and the impunity with which it is done, is shocking, creating a climate of lawlessness. One just has to glance at a Pakistani newspaper or watch graphic images of violence on television screens to get a sense of the gravity of the situation.

At the same time, people are increasingly finding it difficult to fend for themselves economically. And their economic desperation is magnified when the country’s rich manage to become richer while the poor, well; they remain poor or become poorer.

Will Pakistan’s nascent democracy address these issues of large-scale violence and lifting people from a state of constant grind and abysmal poverty? Democracy is only a political tool to serve people better. And if it fails to help people they will join the ranks of the Taliban and other extremist groups in the name of religion and swell their ranks. It has already happened with unemployed and aimless youth joining the militant ranks with promised rewards in this and the next world. After all, they have nothing much to lose in a world that has abandoned them to their own devices.      

Note: This article was first published in Daily Times.

Contact: sushilpseth@yahoo.com.au